Black Box Puzzle Guide: How to Solve the Daily in Fewer Probes

Game guideOct 16, 2026 · 7 min read

How Black Box works in 30 seconds

We built Black Box around one feeling: staring at a machine you can't open and slowly working out what it does. You get a sealed box, a palette of colored gems (red, blue, green, yellow) and a target row at the top of the screen. Each turn you line up a row of gems, press PROBE, and watch what comes out the other side. You win the moment the box produces the target exactly.

Your score is the number of probes you used, including the winning one. Each puzzle has a par, and stars work like this:

• 3 stars: at or under par
• 2 stars: up to two probes over par
• 1 star: anything more

The campaign has 32 levels across five worlds: Echo (gems change color), Order (the row gets rearranged, filtered or counted), Memory (the box remembers earlier probes), Chain (two boxes, A feeding B) and Deep (the box picks a rule based on what you feed it). Winning four levels in a world opens the next one.

The Daily is one new box per day, the same for everyone, switching at your local midnight. Difficulty follows the day of the week:

You get up to 25 probes on the Daily. Once you finish, you see a histogram of how many probes everyone else needed, and a spoiler-free share card.

The core strategy: probe to learn, then probe to win

Most players treat every probe as an attempt at the target. That is the slowest way to play. A good probe is one whose output you can't predict yet. Here is the method we use ourselves:

1. Read the target before you touch anything. Its length and colors are clues. A target longer than your input slot means the box adds gems. A color that isn't in your palette means the box changes colors. A target full of one color often means counting or filtering.
2. Open with a varied row. Use several different colors in a fixed order, like red, blue, green, yellow. A row of all one color hides reordering completely, so it teaches you almost nothing on a first probe.
3. Describe the difference in one sentence. Compare input and output: did colors change, did gems vanish, did the order flip, did the length change? Write your guess down in your head as a rule, not a feeling.
4. Change exactly one thing and probe again. Swap the first gem, or the last gem, or drop one gem to change the length. If the output changes in a way your rule didn't predict, the thing you changed matters. This is how you find hidden conditions.
5. Work backwards from the target. Once your rule survives a test, ask: what input would this rule turn into the target? Make sure that input also lands in the same branch of the rule you tested. Then probe it.

The in-game journal logs every probe, so you never need to remember outputs. And after any probe that misses, the target bar briefly marks which positions already match. Two of five right in the correct spots tells you more than "wrong".

Worked example: a Tuesday Daily

Let's walk through a real past Daily, the Tuesday puzzle from October 13. It's safe to spoil now. The palette has all four colors, you can put in up to five gems, par is 4, and the target is red, green, yellow, red.

Probe 1: a varied opener

Input: red, blue, green, yellow. Output: red, blue, green. The colors and order survived and the last gem disappeared. First hypothesis: "it eats the last gem."

Probe 2: change one thing

It's Tuesday, so there may be a condition. We keep the same four colors and only swap the last two, so the row now ends in green: red, blue, yellow, green. Output: blue, yellow, green, red. Nothing was eaten this time. The first gem moved to the back instead. So the last gem decides what happens: ending in green triggers a rotation, and our other row (ending in yellow) got its last gem eaten.

Probe 3: work backwards

Can the rotation branch make the target? To get red, green, yellow, red after moving the first gem to the back, we would need to feed red, red, green, yellow. That ends in yellow, not green, so it falls into the other branch. Dead end.

The "eat the last gem" branch is easier: type the target, then add one extra gem that isn't green so the condition doesn't flip. Input: red, green, yellow, red, blue. Output: red, green, yellow, red. Decoded in 3 probes, one under par, three stars.

Notice what we didn't do: probe the target itself. Red, green, yellow, red ends in red, so the box eats the last gem and returns red, green, yellow. The Daily is built so that typing the target straight in never wins.

Common mistakes

• Typing the target as your first probe. It feels efficient, but on the Daily it never solves the puzzle, and a near miss can push you toward the wrong rule.
• Changing several things at once. If you change the first gem, the length and a color in the middle, and the output changes, you have no idea which change mattered.
• Single-color and very short probes. Three greens look the same reversed, rotated or sorted. A lone red can come back empty. Save these for confirming a rule, not discovering one.
• Trusting a rule after one probe. One output fits many rules. On Tuesdays and later, assume there's a condition until a test says otherwise.
• Forgetting the box remembers. On memory boxes, the same row can give different outputs depending on what came before. If results stop making sense, check the memory counter next to the box.

Advanced tips

Memory boxes (Thursday, Friday, World 3)

When a box has memory, a reset button appears and a small counter shows how many rows the box remembers. Resetting clears the memory and does not cost a probe. The Daily hint for these days is "Probe the same row twice," and it's good advice: if the same input gives two different outputs, the box is alternating, echoing your previous row, or has been switched on by something you fed it earlier. Plan the winning probe with the memory in mind, and reset first if you need the box in its starting state.

Two boxes (Sunday, World 4)

On chain puzzles you choose where each probe goes: box A, box B, or A→B. Only A→B can win, but probing each box alone first is usually cheaper than guessing through both at once. Figure out B, work out what B needs to receive to produce the target, then work out what A turns into that.

Nested conditions (Saturday, World 5)

Saturday boxes ask two questions about your row, such as how it starts or ends, whether it contains a color, or how long it is. Then they run a different rule for each answer. Hold everything constant and toggle one property per probe: first gem, then last gem, then length. Map the branches before you go for the win.

Hints and speed

The hint button gives one nudge sentence, never the answer, and hints never cost stars. On the Daily, using it adds a 💡 to your share card, but your result still counts. On desktop, the number keys pick colors in palette order, Backspace removes the last gem, and Enter probes. After your third probe the animation speeds up so testing feels quick.

FAQ

What happens if I don't solve the Daily in 25 probes?

The puzzle ends, the rule is revealed, and your result is recorded as not decoded. It also resets your streak to zero.

Can I close the tab mid-puzzle?

Yes. Your in-progress Daily is saved on your device, and the title screen offers to resume with your probe count intact. Refreshing does not give you a free restart.

When does the next Daily appear?

At midnight in your own time zone. Everyone plays the same puzzle for a given date.

Do I need an account?

No. Progress, stars and your streak live in your browser. When you finish a Daily, your result goes to our server under a random anonymous ID so we can draw the global histogram. Nothing else is sent.

Is it free?

Yes, free in your browser with no ads. It's also on itch.io if you'd like to leave a tip.